Superman Fights the Hulk in Impressive Fan Animation [Video]

SHOW YOUR WORK is something you hear a lot when nerds debate who should win any given superhero fight. Animator Michael Habjan took the challenge to heart, creating a rather impressive series of animated shorts that depict a battle between Superman and the Incredible Hulk, which is certainly among the most argued hypothetical fights. The project is ongoing so don't expect a resolution, but you can inspect Habjan's progress in the three videos after the cut.

Of course this isn't the first time we've seen a slugfest between Superman and the Hulk. The two superheroes came to blows in the 1996 crossover event, DC Vs. Marvel. As I recall, their battle was drawn and scripted by Claudio Castellini and Peter David, respectively, and Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster's legendary Man of Steel trounced Jack Kirby & Stan Lee's incredible Green Goliaths. Like all the main bouts of that most divisive, friendship-shattering comic book, the outcome of Superman vs. the Hulk was decided by popular vote -- the same dubious mechanism that resulted in one of the worst travesties in the history of completely unimportant things: Wolverine defeating Lobo.

Superman and the Hulk went at it again 1999's The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman. With artwork by Steve Rude and Al Milgrim, the one-shot is certainly among the best looking fight comics of all time, and the genuinely pretty great story by Roger Stern ends in something of a draw. Do yourself a favor and buy The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman if you can find it anywhere.

Now comes this animated fan project by Michael Habjan with music and sound by Francois Gratecap. The clips recreate Christopher Reeve's image of Superman and pits him against a similarly cinematic version of the Hulk, all set against a Dragon Ball Z-esque expanse of desert and rock. Habjan explained the process:

Created on an Intel i7-990X hex core 24 GB RAM, and and i7-920 quad core 12 GB RAM. It took about eight months to do the animation. The models and character puppets have been a work in progress for years prior though. During this production, I didn't always have access to both workstations so that is partly why it took a few months longer than it should've to complete. Also I've been working full time job while making this, and haven't had the time I'd like to put into it. I hope to be able to take time off work for the next project and have it finished in the summer some time.

I don't understand what any of that means but this seems pretty good, with quite a lot of cool physics and action. The clips really do amount to a fairly serious consideration of how such a battle would play out. The models and effects improve every time, so I'm hoping there's some World War Hulk-style orbital drops in future installments of this fun tribute.